Amphora Discovery

Amphora Discovery Corporation, founded in 2001, specialized in providing pathway-based drug discovery services. The company was co-founded by William P. Janzen, who brought 18 years of pharmaceutical R&D experience from Eli Lilly & Company and Sphinx Pharmaceuticals, and C. Nicholas Hodge. Janzen initially served as CTO and later became President and COO, while Hodge acted as CSO.

The firm operated with a distinct business model, dividing its operations into two specialized units: Amphora Pharmaceuticals and Amphora Discovery. The Amphora Pharmaceuticals unit, based in Los Altos, California, concentrated on developing and out-licensing its portfolio of high-value drug candidates. Concurrently, the Amphora Discovery unit, located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, functioned as a contract research organization (CRO), offering its drug discovery expertise and platforms to the broader pharmaceutical and biotech industries. This structure allowed the company to commercialize its internal intellectual property while also generating revenue through contract services.

Amphora's core offering was a lead generation platform designed to provide precision and high-quality data for drug discovery programs. The company's services included assay design, high-throughput screening, and compound profiling. These capabilities were applied to develop proprietary clinical entities for therapeutic areas such as oncology, inflammation, metabolic diseases, and neurological disorders. One of its notable achievements was the development of preclinical candidates that were specific inhibitors for AKT1 in oncology and p38 in inflammation. In January 2007, Genentech acquired Amphora's entire oncology program for an undisclosed target, including the preclinical lead and intellectual property. Throughout its operation, the company raised a total of $81.9 million in funding from investors including 3i Group, ARCH Venture Partners, and Aventis. Amphora Discovery was acquired by Nanosyn on October 21, 2008.

Keywords: drug discovery services, pathway-based discovery, contract research organization, lead generation platform, oncology, inflammation, high-throughput screening, compound profiling, preclinical candidates, assay design, out-licensing, chemogenomics, microfluidics, lead optimization, Nanosyn acquisition, William P. Janzen, C. Nicholas Hodge, Genentech, ARCH Venture Partners, 3i Group